The Midnight Queen - Page 16/177

"And after that?"

"After that! After that! How do I know what after that!" exclaimed Sir

Norman, rather fiercely. "Ormiston, what do you mean?"

Ormiston laughed.

"And after that you'll marry her, I suppose!"

"Perhaps I may, if she will have me. And what if I do?"

"Oh, nothing! Only it struck me you may be saving another man's wife."

"That's true!" said Sir Norman, in a subdued tone, "and if such should

unhappily be the case, nothing will remain but to live in hopes that he

may be carried off by the plague."

"Pray Heaven that we may not be carried off by it ourselves!" said

Ormiston, with a slight shudder. "I shall dream of nothing but that

horrible plague-pit for a week. If it were not for La Masque, I would

not stay another hour in this pest-stricken city."

"Here we are," was Sir Norman's rather inapposite answer, as they

entered Piccadilly, and stopped before a large and handsome house, whose

gloomy portal was faintly illuminated by a large lamp. "Here, my man

just carry the lady in."

He unlocked the door as he spoke, and led the way across a long hall to

a sleeping chamber, elegantly fitter up. The man placed the body on the

bed and departed while Sir Norman, seizing a handbell, rang a peal that

brought a staid-looking housekeeper to the scene directly. Seeing a

lady, young and beautiful, in bride robes, lying apparently dead on her

young master's bed at that hour of the night, the discreet matron, over

whose virtuous head fifty years and a snow-white cap had passed, started

back with a slight scream.

"Gracious me, Sir Norman! What on earth is the meaning of this?"

"My dear Mrs. Preston," began Sir Norman blandly, "this young lady is

ill of the plague, and--"

But all further explanation was cut short by a horrified shriek from the

old lady, and a precipitate rush from the room. Down stairs she flew,

informing the other servants as she went, between her screams, and when

Sir Norman, in a violent rage, went in search of her five minutes after,

he found not only the kitchen, but the whole house deserted.

"Well," said Ormiston, as Sir Norman strode back, looking fiery hot and

savagely angry.

"Well, they have all fled, every man and woman of them, the--" Sir

Norman ground out something not quite proper, behind his moustache. "I

shall have to go for the doctor, myself. Doctor Forbes is a friend of

mine, and lives near; and you," looking at him rather doubtfully, "would

you mind staying here, lest she should recover consciousness before I

return?"

"To tell you the truth," said Ormiston, with charming frankness, "I

should! The lady is extremely beautiful, I must own; but she looks

uncomfortably corpse-like at this present moment. I do not wish to die

of the plague, either, until I see La Masque once more; and so if it is

all the same to you, my dear friend, I will have the greatest pleasure

in stepping round with you to the doctor's."